20th Century Fox

Earlier in the year, the tepid box office returns were something to be ignored, as 2011 was competing with the previous year, with both “Avatar” and then the anomaly of “Alice In Wonderland” each raking in a cool billion. Well, it’s April, and it’s time for Hollywood to panic. There have been no genuine out-of-the-box hits so far this year and lots of flops, and the two (barely) $100 million grossers considered underperformers (“Rango” and “Just Go With It”). Let’s face it, part of it is a failure of marketing, but the blame must be laid on inadequate product. Even when it comes to the early year doldrums, this has been a banner year for garb...

This Summer, You Will Believe A Planet Can RiseThose damn dirty apes at Fox can't stop monkeying around with the next film in the "Planet of the Apes" series. First, they went ahead and offered it to every major director only to be turned down. Then they ordered multiple rewrites despite already having a release date. Finally, they declared June 24th to be the day audiences would see "Cesar," though they had already changed the name to "Rise Of The Apes." Then, of course, they bumped the film to Thanksgiving to allow for more time to finish the special effects. Then, at some point, they must have replaced the special effects guys with wizards...

While Universal’s animated division remains behind Disney and Dreamworks, “Hop” became their second straight surprisingly big opening this weekend, collecting $39 million. Most called the heavily-promoted film in the high 20’s, low 30’s, but like “Despicable Me” before it, the film definitely connected with family audiences in its first frame. While “Despicable Me” eventually collected $544 million globally with a much bigger opening, “Hop” isn’t expected to bust the doors down. But due to the seasonal and family appeal, expect this thing to have legs, and while they initially weren’t counting on $100 domestic, that should be easily surmounta...

Demographics matter. You want to say, well, screw the numbers, let’s just make a movie for everyone! But considering the multiple sources of entertainment in our multimedia worlds, whatever doesn’t automatically turn us on will turn us off. Because of this, Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” turned people off. It was an action fantasia, a genre normally attractive to teenage boys, but it featured only girls, an immediate turnoff for that demographic. And it didn’t appeal to women, who noticed the marketing campaign centered around cacophonous violence and mayhem, not usually a drawing point for females. It wasn’t made for kids, but the heavily-CGI’...

We're beginning to suspect that someone at 20th Century Fox's marketing department is deliberately fucking with Matthew Vaughn, perhaps as revenge for bailing on "X-Men: The Last Stand" all those years ago. For some time, the "Kick-Ass" director's return to the mutant franchise, in the form of prequ...

Updated: Well, it looks as per Mr. Caruso's own comments below, that he spoke out of turn. We've spoke to management and agents for the actor and while management confirms that Caruso has met with Appian Way and Leonardo DiCaprio and management has spoken to Fox about the project, no directorial dea...

Despite rising 3D surcharges, studios posted major box office and attendance drops in 2010, suggesting moviegoers were not entirely intrigued by the year’s product. Some distributors executed a winning game plan with success, while others floundered, making a series of unwise decisions that probably...

Sometimes Hollywood is like a magical genie: if you talk about a project enough times, it will get a greenlight, simply because people interpret "talking about" to be "buzz" and "anticipation" which, somewhere down the line, is supposed to equal dollars. So this sudden chatter regarding a "24" movie...

With a number of high-profile pictures based on established properties flopping last summer -- "The A-Team," "Prince of Persia" and "Marmaduke" -- contrasted with the success of the relatively fresh "Inception," whispers started to circulate that studio heads were desperately seeking original materi...

'My Name Is Jack Bauer, And I Am In Development Hell'Bad news for those hoping for the further adventures of Kiefer Sutherland's rogue CTU agent Jack Bauer: apparently Fox has rejected a script from high-profile scribe Billy Ray ("Shattered Glass," "Salt") for a feature film continuing the adventures of the lead character of "24," the hit series that ran for eight years and successfully tapped into that raw post-9/11 paranoia during the Bush years. The intention all along was to push the show into the cinematic world, but so-so ratings for the final season, coupled with likely budgetary concerns (the series might as well have been called "Sho...